LESSON XXIV. Regular Verbs. First Conjugation, Couper. XXV. First Conjugation. Orthographic Irregularities... XXVII. Third Conjugation, Recevoir.. First Conjugation.. ........ Vocabulary to the English Exercises for Translation.... The wo is not a French letter. It is found in a few foreign words that have been introduced into the French language, and is pronounced the same as the v. 2.-ORTHOGRAPHIC SIGNS. The written language has accents, cedilla, diæresis, apostrophe, hyphen, and the ordinary punctuation marks. There are three accents, the acute ('), the grave (`), and the cir. cumflex (^). The acute accent is used over the vowel e only. The acute é has the sound of a in fate. The grave accent is used over e, a, u. The grave è has the sound The vowel e, joined to the consonants to give their new names, has nearly the sound of u in burr. The g and u have no corresponding sound in English. of ei in their. The grave accent is used over a and u only as a mark of distinction (p. 13; 10, 2). The circumflex accent is used over a long vowel, after which a letter has been suppressed (p. 13; 10, 3). The cedilla () is placed under the c (c) before a, o, u, to indicate that it has the sound of 8, as: ça, ço, çu. The diæresis (") is placed over a vowel that begins a new syllable after another vowel; as, maïs (ma-is). It is also placed over final that follows u, when the u is to be pronounced, as: aiguë; the u of the syllable gue is otherwise silent. The apostrophe (') indicates the suppression of a vowel, as: l'ami, for le ami; l'homme, for le homme. The hyphen (-) indicates the connection between two or more words, or parts of a word, as: ai-je; arc-en-ciel. There are six vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y; but there are thirteen vowel. sounds; nine are pure, and four are nasal. These vowel-sounds have nearly all corresponding sounds in Eng. lish. a (short) has the sound of a in hat, as: sa, ma, malle, salle. è has the sound of ei in their, as: dès, frère, mère, père. ê has the sound of ei in their (broad), as: fête, frêle, même, tête. i or y* has the sound of e in me, as: ami, mari, midi, si. * The letter y, preceded by a vowel, has the value of double i, as : pays (pay-ee). o (short) has the sound of o in not, as: dot, mode, mol, notre. o (long) has the sound of o in note, as: dos, mot, rôti, nôtre. u has no equivalent sound in English. eu (short) has nearly the sound of u in burr, as: fleur, sœur, beurre, heure. eu (long) has no equivalent in English, but has the sound of ö in German, as: peu, feu, jeu, bleu. ou has the sound of oo in school, as: mou, trou, sou, hibou. ou, before final r, has the sound of oo in boor, as: jour, four, tour, amour. 2.-REMARKS ON THE UNACCENTED E. The unaccented e, at the end of a word of two or more syllables, is silent, as abîme, trouve. After two consonants, it is slightly pronounced-just enough to give utterance to the preceding consonant, as sable, sabre, cable. This is also the case when it closes a syllable that is followed by a consonant: demande (d'mande), samedi (sam'di). When e stands between two consonants that belong to the same syllable, it is sounded like e in bed, as: bec, bel, mette, serre. Before a final r that is pronouced, e has the sound of è (grave), as : mer, fer, hiver; and before a final r, z, d or ƒ that is silent, e has the sound of é (acute), as: parler, parlez, bled, clef, which are pronounced the same as if they were written parlé, blé, clé. 3.-COMPOUND VOWELS. A compound vowel is a combination of two or more vowels, having the sound of a single vowel, as: eu, ou. The following compound vowels represent some of the pure vowel-sounds: ai or eai has the sound sometimes of é and sometimes of è. ai has the sound of é when it closes a syllable, as: j'ai, je mangeai; and in je sais, tu sais, il sait. ai has the sound of è generally when it is not final, as: plaie, j'avais, mais. ei has the sound of è, as: peine. ea has the sound of a, as: mangea. ée has the sound of é, as: fée, épée. au, eau, have the sound of ô, as: faux, beau. ceu has the sound of eu, as: bœuf. m, preceded by a vowel, has the nasal sound of n. e, before m or n, has the nasal sound of an; but en, preceded by i (ien) has the nasal sound of in. m and n are not nasal when they are double, or followed by a Vowel. The nasal sounds are represented by The English language has no sounds exactly equivalent to the French nasal sounds. The nearest approach to them is heard in pronouncing, separately from the consonants that follow them, the nasal sounds an, in, on, un, contained in the following English words: an is sounded as an in want, as: ruban, sang,* enfant.* in is sounded as an in angry, as: fin, faim, pain. on is sounded as on in long, as: bon, long,* façon. un is sounded as un in hunger, as: brun, tribun, chacun. 4.-DIPHTHONGS. A diphthong is a combination of two vowel-sounds, which are both heard in pronouncing. Pure diphthongs: ia ie ieu oi ouè oui, etc. 5.-PRONUNCIATION OF THE DIPHTHONGS, ia in fiacre, pronounced fee-ah-kr. ie in lier, pronounced lee-a. ieu in lieu, pronounced lee-eu. (See vowel sounds for eu.) * A final consonant after a nasal sound is silent. |